Bhuj/Gandhinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today start his two day Gujarat visit, third of his home state this year and 9th in last around 10 months, during which he will lay foundation stone of developmental works of Rs 996 crores, dedicate an important pumping station meant for aiding to Narmada water supply to far flung areas of Kutch district and also inaugurate the Annual General Meeting of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) being held in capital Gandhinagar.

He will also address two public meetings during his visit, both in Kutch district today, one at Gandhidham and second near Bhachau.

The special aircraft of PM Modi will land at Bhuj airport at around 1430 hrs this afternoon from where he would leave for Kandla by chopper to participate in an event at Gandhidham organized by the Kandla Port Trust. There, he will lay the foundation stones of Babasaheb Ambedkar Convetnion Center (estimated construction cost Rs 15.26 crores ), 14 th and 16 th Cargo berths of Kandla port (Rs 253 crores and Rs 278 crores respectively), Railway bridge at Sal junction in Kutch ( Rs 233 crores) and Mechanic works for fertilizer handling at Kandla Port ( Rs 122 crores) and announce the purchase of two mobile harbour crane ( cost Rs 94 crores). He would also address the gathering on the occasion.

Later, he would fly by chopper to Bhachau in Kutch to dedicate a pumping station of the Narmada water supply project in nearby Lodhida village. He would also address a public meeting there which was likely to be attended by more than 1.50 lakh people. Notably Narmada water supply had reached Rapar of Kutch in April 2011 during the tenure of Modi as the then CM of Gujarat. Now with the inauguration of pumping station in Lodhida the water of Narmada would reach the end points of the district.

PM Modi will fly to Ahmedabad airport in the evening and move to Gandhinagar for a night stay at Rajbhavan. The next day he would participate in African Development Bank event at Mahatma Mandir before departing for Delhi the same day. He would also meet with senior leaders of ruling BJP during the visit.

This is in all 12 th Gujarat visit of Modi since his taking over as PM in May 2014.

Earlier a day before this visit, last evening PM Modi in a series of tweets had himself shared details of his visit. He had said that on the sidelines of AfDB Group Annual Meetings, he would meet some of the distinguished delegates who will be taking part in the event which has a very relevant theme of ‘Transforming Agriculture for Wealth Creation in Africa’.

PM Modi in his tweets had also praised Kutch district from where his visit begins today. He said, ”From suffering unimaginable destruction due to the 2001 quake, Kutch is today known as one of India’s fastest growing districts. Kutch has a very special place in my heart. It is blessed with wonderful people and a remarkable spirit of resilience.”

Several Union Ministers, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, other ministers, senior BJP leaders including state BJP president Jeetu Vaghani would participate in various events during PM’s visit.

DeshGujarat